MATER DEI HAS EASY TIME AGAINST CATHEDRAL CATHOLIC

Normally, if your San Diego Section championship hopes involve playing Cathedral Catholic, that means you have to play at the home of the Dons.

That usually does not end well for the other team.

The last time that happened to Mater Dei Catholic, Kailani Gary was just a sophomore and the Crusaders lost that game at Cathedral.

Vowing to avenge that loss, Gary scored 14 points and pulled down 17 rebounds to lead the Crusadages

Mater Dei Catholic 63, Cathedral Catholic 31

victory march with a 6331 victory Tuesday over the Dons in the Division I semifinals.

“Either way, if the game was here or at Cathedral, we’d still win,” Gary said. “I was just trying to dominate, especially after we lost to them two years ago.

“Not again. I had to get my revenge before graduation.”

Now 20-9, the top-seeded Crusaders advance to Friday’s Division I championship game at 7:30 p.m. at Augustine High against the winner of No. 3 Rancho Bernardo and No. 2 Imperial.

Mater Dei opened the game on a hit streak, making 9 of 12 shots from the field in a 21-point first quarter, setting a tempo the No. 5 Dons (15-15) couldn’t match as their five-game winning streak was snapped.

Senior Koko Akridge (11 points), senior Kaylee Muckerman (nine points) and junior point guard Lisa Mungo (eight points) keyed the first-half run by the Crusaders.

It was the same formula that worked for a 59-47 noners’ win over Cathedral on Dec. 10.

The Crusaders slowly padded the lead with a steady offense and a defense that forced 14 turnovers.

“We wanted to pressure them baseline-to-baseline and make (Gizel Navarro) stay busy the whole game,” Mater Dei coach David Monroe said. “If things had worked out this season we would have been in the Open Division, but we had some injuries.

“As we lost players, we kind of set our sights on being the top seed in Division I.”

That’s exactly what hapSt. pened to the Dons, who finished 10-12 away from home.

Mater Dei outscored Cathedral 30-13 in the second half behind Gary’s 10 rebounds in the final two periods.

Akridge led the winners with 18 points followed by Gary’s 14 points and 12 points from Muckerman.

“Things get really serious from here on out,” Gary said. “I was anxious about playing tonight. Now we should go right to the championship game tomorrow and play it as soon as possible. There’s no need to wait any extra days.”

Mater Dei, which averleague

56.4 points on offense, also matched its defensive effort, which averages 48.2 a game this season.

Now the Crusaders, who have won four of the last six meetings with the Dons, are taking aim on winning their first CIF title since 2017 when they edged San Marcos to take the Division I title.

Cathedral was led in scoring by Navarro with 15 and Alana Brackett with 10.

Cathedral’s last San Diego Section championship came in 2020 when the Dons captured the Open Division crown.